of gratifying his own vanity, by galloping about on a neutral ground, and attracting the admiration of both armies, but especially of the Cossacks, by his horsemanship, and the brilliant, if not fantastic, dresses in which it was at all times his delight to exhibit his fine person.  But King Joachim never displayed his foppery so willingly as on the field of battle:  he committed only, on a smaller scale, the same error which detained his master in the Kremlin.

CHAPTER XXXI

Napoleon quits Moscow—­Battles of Vincovo and Malo-Yaraslovetz—­Retreat on Verreia—­and Smolensko—­Repeated Defeats and Sufferings of the French—­Smolensko—­Krasnoi—­Passage of the Beresina—­Smorgonie—­Napoleon quits the Army—­his arrival at Warsaw—­at Dresden—­in Paris.

The armistice, such as it was, between Joachim and Kutusoff, was broken through so soon as the latter had sufficiently disciplined the new recruits who had crowded to his standard from every region of the empire.  Murat then received considerable reinforcements from Moscow, together with Napoleon’s commands to gain possession, if possible, of one of the roads leading to Kalouga.  There, and at Toula, the chief magazines of the Russian army were known to be established; and, moreover, by retiring in that direction towards Poland, (should a retreat finally be found necessary,) Napoleon counted on the additional and far greater advantage of traversing a country hitherto unwasted.

The King of Naples, accordingly, pushed his light troops over a new district; and had the mortification to find the Russian system of defence persevered in wherever he advanced.  The splendid country house of Rostophchin was burnt to the ground, ere the French reached it; and the following letter, affixed to its gates, breathed the same spirit which had dared to sacrifice Moscow:—­“I have for eight years embellished this residence, and lived happily in it with my family.  The inhabitants of the estate, in number 1720, quitted it at your approach; and I set fire to my house, that it may not be polluted with your presence.”

Kutusoff was no longer disposed to witness in inaction the progress of Murat.  He divined that Napoleon must at last be convinced of the necessity of abandoning Moscow, and determined that at all events he should not make his retreat in the direction of Kalouga.  General Bennigsen was ordered to attack Murat, on the 18th October, at Vincovo:  and the result was decidedly in favour of the Russians, in whose hands there remained nearly 3000 prisoners, and forty pieces of artillery.  The cannonade was heard at the Kremlin; and no sooner did the issue of the day reach Napoleon, than he made up his mind to march his whole army to the support of the King of Naples.  That same evening, several divisions were put in motion; he himself, at the head of others, left Moscow on the 19th; and the metropolis was wholly evacuated on